Teressa, There is a whole slew of tools that can be used to find folks! If your folks didn't die in one of the states that has a comprehensive death index, or died recently, the Social Security Death Index is the best way to find them. If they died very recently, then obituaries can be a wonderful way to find survivors. *Acquiring* the obituary can be difficult, but it is usually well worth it. There is a database called the Obituary Daily Times that indexes obituaries from papers around the world, but primarily in North America. Only contributors can request an obit from another contributor; but ANYONE can use the index to ask for a reprint from the original paper. The link is: http://www.rootsweb.com/~obituary/ This explains the system. The search link is: http://obits.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/obit.cgi (I'd try queries like "workman ar" "workman ok" "workman ca" -- the surname and the state of birth or death. You don't need to enter the quotes. The indexers try to include a woman's maiden name if it can be determined from her parents' names or brothers' surnames.) You can search the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) at: http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi This is only searchable by a woman's married name, unlike many databases that require a maiden name. --Amy